• Interview with Cabinet Secretary Christopher Lu

    Interview with Cabinet Secretary Christopher Lu

    Christopher Lu is President Obama’s Cabinet Secretary, co-chair of the Executive Office of the President, and co-chair of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. He previously served as executive director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project; a legislative director and chief of staff to then-Senator Obama; and deputy chief counsel to the Democrats on the House Oversight [...]

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  • Play Ball! Campaign Finance Made Easy

    Play Ball! Campaign Finance Made Easy

    It is officially one month until Labor Day, the traditional start date for fall campaigns (an old custom that is no longer followed, much like other political traditions, e.g. compromise, cloture). Both presidential campaigns will pick up steam this month and continue until Election Day grants them reprieve. Donors across the political spectrum will keep these campaigns going. Unlike in [...]

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  • Live Blogging the Nov. 9 Republican Presidential Debate

    Tonight, CNBC is hosting, along with the Michigan Republican Primary, a Republican presidential debate focused on the economy. The debate is hosted by Maria Bartiromo and John Harwood at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. The participants include the now-established GOP candidates: Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. A series [...]

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  • A Right to Opinions is Not a Right to One’s Own Facts

    A Right to Opinions is Not a Right to One’s Own Facts

    By the time a student in an American school reaches the fourth grade or so, he should be able to identify that the Earth, like all planets in our solar system, orbits the Sun. Yet according to a National Science Foundation poll conducted a few years ago, 24% of Americans believe that the Sun orbits the Earth, rather than the [...]

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  • Right…Right…Perfect!

    Right…Right…Perfect!

    When the recent debt deal was announced, the Republican candidates for the presidential nomination were expected to take a stand. Some made a statement early while others took longer. But in the end, every candidate but one (Gov. Jon Huntsman) came out against the deal. In other words, the average Republican presidential candidate is at the conservative end of the [...]

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  • A #Twist on Debating: Recapping the GOP Twitter Debate

    A #Twist on Debating: Recapping the GOP Twitter Debate

    On Wednesday, as debt deal talks continued to consume most politicians inside the beltway, the 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls stepped away from politics as usual toward the politics of the future — a Twitter debate. With all of the quoting (read: retweeting), finger-pointing (read: @mentioning) and following (read: following) inherent in any political debate, the Republican contenders and their followers [...]

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  • Weak T-Paw

    Weak T-Paw

    Tim Pawlenty mailed out a glossy mailer in Iowa this week. The mailer gushes (in beautiful color) about his time as governor of Minnesota. “Leadership is about results, not rhetoric,” it says. Mr. Pawlenty must hope that slogan is true when it comes to nominating campaigns. After being essentially four years into a presidential campaign, he is polling at 5%. [...]

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  • Who’s Afraid of Jon Huntsman?

    Who’s Afraid of Jon Huntsman?

    The magazine National Journal does a survey each week called the Political Insiders Poll. In the June 4th issue, the editors asked insiders from both parties to answer different questions. Democrats were asked, “Who would be the Republicans’ strongest presidential nominee in 2012?” That list was short, with clear front-runners. The first choice was, as with the Republicans, Mitt Romney [...]

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  • Bellwether or Bandwagon?

    Bellwether or Bandwagon?

    Earlier this week, I was looking at a New York Times graphic titled “Key States for Obama.” To my surprise, Missouri—what I would consider the ultimate swing state—did not feature on the list at all. Somewhere else I saw it referred to as a lost cause. Strange, given that it has voted for the winning candidate in 25 of the [...]

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  • Republican Debate Recap

    Republican Debate Recap

    Last night was the first major debate of the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary.  Seven candidates faced off to discuss issues ranging from economics to foreign policy and NASA to abortion.  Below I offer my assessment of each candidate’s performance: Tim Pawlenty: In my opinion, Tim Pawlenty won the debate.  He attacked Obama frequently, used colorful language (“stupid” and “chump”), and [...]

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